Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Anansi Boys is the first 'pure' Neil Gaiman novel I've read, my first taste of Gaiman's writing was in Good Omens, but it's hard to say where Terry Pratchett begins and where Neil Gaiman ends.

Anyhoo, dispensing with the detailed synopsis of Anansi Boys, here's the wikipedia link. Essentially it's the story of 'Fat Charlie' Nancy, unwitting son of the spider god, Anansi, and brother of "Spider" - a suave and charming version of Charlie, who steals his girlfriend and messes up his life.

I was rooting for Fat Charlie the whole time, cos he's such an endearing anti-hero, and I empathised with his plight. I also liked one of the underlying themes of the story, which is to have self-belief and confidence.

I finished Anansi Boys in record time, because it's such a fun read and Gaiman's writing is smooth like tauhuay. It's so easy on the palate, and before you know it, you've gulped down the whole bowl with relish.

9 out of 10 youtiao. (ninjas enjoy tauhuay too)

"Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk

Link to Wikipedia's plot synopsis.

I didn't really like "Choke", but I can't quite put a finger down as to why I don't. It could be the episodic narrative, which toggles between Victor's present day and his confused childhood, or it could be the utter lack of elaboration of -- to use his words -- the "bordello of the subconscious", or his inner thoughts.

I also found the book rather ambivalent.

• Victor runs a scam so that he can get extra money to pay off his mother's burgeoning medical bills. He exonerates himself from ethical considerations by claiming that he is letting everyone have the opportunity to play the hero.
  
• At the medical centre where his mother is staying, he admits to perpetuating a multitude of "crimes" laid on him by other patients, in an effort to let these people find their inner peace.
• He is a medical student dropout, but he thinks of going back to school one day.
  
• He has a sexual addiction problem and knows it. But he attends sexual recovery workshops to cruise for new partners anyway.
  

And then there is his upbringing. His mum of the alternative upbringing ideas who went in and out of jail, who sprung him regularly from foster parents to teach him about the workings of the world. Who ran scams of a scale that the police and foster parents had to put pressure on him to tell them where she could be found. Whom Victor feels wedded to in a way that a son never completely weans himself from the influence of his mother, hence the struggle to meet the monetary demands of his mother's medical bills.

It's really a story that has no clear lines drawn, no satisfactory "end of the story" type of book. All rather sad if you ask me.

Geek rating: 2.5 out of 5

"Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides

The central protaganist of the story is Calliope (or 'Cal' as he is later known), who was born a girl but is actually more a guy. This novel is narrated in the first person by him, and details the fascinating and humourous genetic history of the Stephanides family, all three generations of it.

I first saw this book in a bookshop a few minutes before I was due to rush off to watch a movie with friends. Reading the first few had me chuckling, and rather reluctant to leave the book, so the next time I had the chance, I bought the book to read, thinking that I will satisfy my curiousity about the book in the 10-hour to-fro bus ride to KL and back.

I didn't finish it at the bus ride, because I was distracted by clouds, a breathtaking landscape, and most of all, sleep. It took me a couple more readings to finish it, but at the end, I think it's quite a decent book, with its share of humour and sad moments.

Eugenides has a flair for telling a story of such epic proportions (any story that spans several generations in a telling qualifies as 'epic' for me), and I really enjoyed the way he wrote about the fortunes of the Stephanides family, first as an immigrant family in America experiencing all the strangeness of the melting pot culture, then as an all-American family in which the younger generation only knew of their grandparents' beginnings through the eyes of their elders.

Cal's struggles in finding his own sexual identity were quite touching as well. I liked that Eugenides gave play to the fact that Calliope started off wanting to be just any other girl, but finishes off eventually coming to terms with the fact that he is actually more male than female. Of taking time off to find himself, of having the courage, especially, to do so. A coming of age with a twist.

Also interpersed in Cal's flashbacks of his family history are moments of his present life. In his wariness to believe that someone will eventually accept him, and then, when someone really does, I thought it was a very nice ending to a story that starts off because of a deficient gene.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5